Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I'm feeling grateful that on the way back from visiting my grandson today I listened to an NPR program on the Normandy school district in Fergeson, Missouri.  A journalist from the New York Times did an investigative piece about the place were Michael Brown was shot and killed.  He had just graduated from high school.  What she discovered was a failed school district and a state that allowed segregation to persist up until sixteen years ago, and even now, encourages black kids to tolerate inadequate schools rather than transfer to schools where they stand a chance to learn.  I was in tears by the end, and listening to white parents' anger when finally the kids were allowed to be bused thirty miles to a decent, mostly white school sheds light on our current election tone and anger.  There is not even a pretense of caring for these kids.  It's heartbreaking.  They are trapped in schools that don't train or support them in any way.  And the state is fine with this.  If you thought this was solved in the fifties, think again.  People have come up with new and creative ways to exclude people of color from their world.  And they buy houses where they feel guaranteed the right to have privledge and advantage over the poorer people in society.  I feel ashamed.  I thought we were better than this.  I know, I live in a bubble.  But my bubble at least includes minorities and busing to integrate the schools.  My congressional representative is black.  I know how difficult it is to be black in our culture, and what it means to face prejudice night and day.  I don't want to reverse what progress we have made.  I pray hate does not triumph over tolerance and willingness to seek out our other and know them.